The Time Has Come

2010 is almost upon us. Just a few more days and we turn the calendar over to the "teens." Looking back on the zeroes, I must say I sure didn't write much fiction. I did write some, but I didn't sell very much of it, mostly because I didn't finish it or the proposals for books didn't go anywhere. This last is easy to understand since I was writing proposals for books I didn't very much want to write.

In a way, when it comes to fiction, I took the decade off from serious writing. I did do a lot of reading that was valuable, and my Alternate View column for Analog I faithfully produced five times a year. I can't say much about the nature of the physics I learned and worked on; not enough to account for the amount of time taken up by the pursuit. But it did affect my fiction, and it did require time that would have otherwise gone to writing fiction.

But now I feel like writing fiction again. I have things to say best said by characters animated with my words and ideas, and put into situations where it matters. This is a generation unmoved by ideas alone. It needs passion, it needs lust, it needs to feel. And dream. Only when the mind is prepared with feelings will ideas set it aflame.

One day, ideas alone will start fires. But not today.